and avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. and they only have 19 days left. at the same time, the president's short list for secretary of state is even shorter right now, now that the ambassador susan rice has taken her name out of the running to replace hillary clinton. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash, they are both standing by. jessica, first to you on the obama/b obama/boehner meeting that's going on what are you hearing? >> the meeting began 50 minutes ago in the oval office, and the purpose of this 11th hour meeting is to see if they can find a breakthrough. to see if there is any way that they can reach a deal in the 11th hour, wolf. for the speaker, that would mean essentially if he can get more spending cuts from the president. if there is a way they can achieve entitlement reform and enough of a spending agreement that would make it worth the speaker's while and able to sell it to his base. for the president, it means, will the speaker give on ta